...

So, what? Are you saying that technically I could also be this… Risen?" Klaus broke out in laughter as he looked at Rebekah. Dangling his feet off the gurney that she had refused to sit on, he threw his head back, making her glare intensify and Caroline shove him lightly.

Rebekah's face was grim. "You think this is so funny, but think about it, your bots are much more similar to theirs than Tyler's."

He scoffed, hopping onto the floor. He didn't want to hear this. Didn't want to hear that there was a chance he could be this mythical forester figure of the Risen. That maybe everything Qetsiyah had talked about was actually still waiting to happen in the future, just differently.

The thing with myths was, even if you didn't believe in them, once you heard about them they were kinda stuck in your brain, ideas festering in there, thoughts revolving around them. As if now that he heard about all this, he simply couldn't stop thinking about it.

"Well, sorry to disappoint," he dismissed, "but I'm not that special."

Caroline raised an eyebrow, giving him a pointed look. "You're still the only person whose bond we managed to sever."

"Because you were too scared to try again," he countered, regretting it as soon as he saw her hurt expression. That she had almost killed him, had maybe aided in killing Hayley still weighed heavily on her and she hadn't dared try healing anyone else for fear of doing something like that again. She wanted to be sure it wouldn't happen. But how could she be without trying again?

"Anyways," he said, giving her a soft kiss on the forehead, "I'm just saying that it sounds… funny to me. Plus, Tyler looks good as the reluctant hero. And he's still the only one who can properly communicate with them, so there's that."

"Ya," Rebekah allowed, looking like she was deep in thought. "I've been wondering about that. - Caroline, is there any sign in his blood yet that the foreign bots have infiltrated his system?"

With a shake of the head, Caroline denied. "Still just Silveren bots, but still rather heightened levels. Which worries me. Has he complained much about his shoulder or arm?" When Rebekah shook her head, she nodded as if to herself. "Okay. What about the treatment. Has he been wearing the weapon as much as possible?"

Rebekah nodded, grimacing. "He's growing tired of it, though… The sheen hasn't gone down at all, and it's been a while now. It didn't even take this long for Enzo…"

Caroline sighed, tugging at her ponytail. Exchanging a glance with Klaus, he could tell that she had no clue what she was doing anymore. Or what was going on with Tyler. He didn't dare say it out loud, but the kid's altered state certainly made it seem like he was the risen after all, and secretly, Klaus was rather relieved that that would take him out of the equation. He didn't want or need to be special. He was rather happy where he now was, alone in his head, but with Caroline in his life…

"Alright, ladies. Enough moping around. We gotta get back, and I think Enzo is waiting for Rebekah to finally be able to come see them in the city." Addressing Caroline he added, "Doc said it's safe now, right? That she could come and see the baby?"

With a nod, Caroline's expression finally turned into a smile, and she gave Rebekah a brief hug. "You're cleared, auntie Bekah. Let's get you over to Mystic Falls…"

"Finally…"

As Rebekah limped past them and out the tent, Klaus and Caroline both followed her with their gazes until she was gone with a last wave of her hand.

"You think she'll be okay now?" Caroline asked, as if he had any answer to that, and he shrugged, wrapping his arm around her, sweeping away a few stray strands that had escaped her ponytail.

"No idea. She's the type that is just looking for it, isn't she? Always ready for a challenge. Still can't quite wrap my head around the fact that she and your ex…" He made a crude gesture, making Caroline swat at his hand and roll her eyes at him.

"Stop it, Klaus," she said exasperatedly, and he couldn't help but chuckle.

"Why?" he asked with a mock innocent frown. "You know they're doing it, right? I mean, you have asked him, haven't you? Seeing as he's still your BFF and all…"

The eyeroll intensified and she shook her head, but he could see amusement behind it, just as usual. This was their thing, still. The banter, the jabs. Sometimes it almost turned a little hatefilled again, a little too dark, like it used to be when they both hadn't liked each other. But then she or he would pull back and get them out of that with a kiss or a bolder gesture or maybe even an "I love you," and then all was well again.

And he wouldn't want to have it any other way.

Klaus Mikaelson a soldier and a Golden guard, former Bonded, had somehow lost his heart to this Silveren girl, Caroline Forbes, soldier, scientist, and engineer, and it felt damn right.

"Come on," he now whispered into her ear, his lips so close that she wiggled away, a soft chuckle escaping her, then he tugged at her and together they, too, made their way out, and back to the city.

…

It was long dark when Rebekah returned back to the forest. She had spent the better part of a week in the city now that she had been cleared, but living within the city walls hadn't felt right. It never had.

She was still the same free spirit she had always been, and her old dream of going to the mountains with Marcel had surfaced more and more these last few weeks.

Seeing Enzo with the baby, with Bonnie, seeing them all together had almost broken her heart, in a good way. Gosh, she loved these three people with everything she had and seeing them so happy, seeing her big brother so happy and whole had spread an ache in her that she hadn't been able to shake off since.

He was finally okay. They all were. She had seen it. The next disaster would come, she knew that, but they'd be better equipped to deal with it. They would be okay.

And yet she was still broken. Her leg would never be okay again. The limp was almost second nature by now. Tyler still had trouble with his shoulder, and not even Alaric's attempts at trying to tackle it with his cure had done much help. The bone was "infected", the man had said, and he didn't know yet how to get the bots out of bone tissue. So they kept replicating whenever the cure tried killing them off, until Tyler had one day just shaken his head and told Alaric to stop.

She sighed as she remembered his face now. He hadn't looked upset or sorry for himself, or even resigned. Just… done, ready to move forward.

So she had moved forward with him. Because at some point during all this, she had begun to rely on him in more ways than one. He had become the one thing that kept her going, the one person to make her feel like she was okay, too.

Because with him, she was.

Being without him for a week while she had visited her brother in the city had been harder than she had anticipated. Now she was finally back in the forest, limping her way through the thicker part of the forest toward where she and Tyler shared a tent these days, in the middle of a forester camp, and she had to think of Marcel again as she walked past these people - his people - that nodded to her as she went, full of respect and friendliness, and she wished he could have been there to see it, to experience it with her.

How his people had accepted her in the end, and even her fellow Silveren boyfriend.

She started, pressing a hand to her mouth briefly. She hadn't ever used that word before, but it was probably appropriate. Because Tyler was her boyfriend, wasn't he? She had a boyfriend and she was an aunt, and maybe it was time to go for the damn mountains and be happy already.

"Hey…"

He appeared out of the shadows of the now almost blackness surrounding her, just a soft rustle of leaves giving him away, and she smiled.

"Hey yourself, stranger. I missed you."

"How was the city?"

"Eh. Lucy is the cutest little thing. It was good to finally be able to hug Enzo and Bonnie…"

Her gaze wavered and he seemed to pick up on something that seemed to worry him. "You okay?" he asked, and she nodded quickly.

"Ya, it was just… Place is too confined. I like it better out here. With you…"

He smiled, his eyes gleaming as the expression slowly melted away the longer he stared at her. His hand came up to brush away her hair, sweep across her cheek, and she grabbed his wrist, holding it there before he could move it away.

"Can we go away sometime?"

He swallowed, his lips working, and she knew she had been a bit too vague for him to know what to say.

"I mean," she amended, "I know you're still waiting to be cleared and I get it if you'd rather go back to our people when all this is done—"

"I'm… I don't," he muttered with a half shake of his head, but she spoke over him, as if she couldn't quite believe his words or that he knew what he really wanted, and she simply had to get this out now.

"What I mean is…" She sighed, struggling with how to even put it into words. How much easier would it be if she had a bond like Enzo, or if Tyler could just read her thoughts like those Blazing had done, these strange people that had left again not long after the Zoners had gone, promising they'd know if Tyler ever called for help again, however that was supposed to work…

Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath, lowering her head. Allowing herself to clear her mind as best as possible, she then looked up again and just spoke. "I've always had this wish to go to the mountains for a bit, you know? To leave everything behind and see what else is out there. It used to be something Marcel and I would talk about… Going someplace else, with no Silveren and Golden, no Neutral Zone, no forester clans. - No Blazing and no myth of the risen…"

She clicked her tongue, chuckling softly at his expression. As if she had slapped him, he tried to back away a little, giving her space that she didn't need. Her features softened as she pulled him closer again, absently tracing his temple, his cheek with a finger. "Not away from you," she clarified. I want to go away with you. Will you come away with me, Tyler?"

Licking her lips, she looked up at him, not sure what she expected. That he just up and left with her? Without a clear plan or path? The thought made her chuckle, but then he leaned forward rather abruptly, kissing her on the lips, guardedly at first, surprising her, but when she reciprocated, he grew bolder, tugging at her lips just as he tugged at her clothes. And soon she found herself doing the same. Tearing his shirt up and over his head, until she could see the terrifying if beautiful sheen meandering along his collarbones and vanishing under the bandage around his arm, and she couldn't help but graze it with the open palm of her hand, making goosebumps erupt not just on his body but on hers too, as if an electric current ran through his body, traveling over into hers.

Her breath came in ever shorter bursts as she jumped to straddle him, not satisfied with touches anymore, wanting everything, wanting him, and when they both came to lie on the cool mossy forest ground, not caring about the sticks and twigs and leaves digging into them, she rose up to look down at him as they found their rhythm, her hands coming to rest right on the marks on his skin, a shivering tingling traveling from there until she felt like she was exploding, and spent she fell forward, sweaty and happy, her limbs tangling with his, her left leg screaming, her head resting on his chest where she felt the flutter of his heart calm down again slowly, slowly, until they both laughed, and she smiled.

"I guess that means yes…"

He wagged an eyebrow briefly, then placed a soft kiss on her forehead. "It does..."

...

THE END

...

Thanks for letting me play with these characters again. Take care!